After a town councillor complained about a mural at a public meeting this summer, the town manager, Jim Gleason, committed to contact the town’s lawyers about the possibility of introducing restrictions on art appearing in public places. That consultation is ongoing and a public art ban remains a live possibility, he says.
While the town has not cited specific grounds for the potential restrictions, discussion about it has centred around art with LGBTQ themes.
The issue is that, if the council wants to restrict certain types of artwork, its options are limited.
It can regulate art on public property, but if it is seen to be discriminating against LGBTQ-themed art, it could invite potentially costly constitutional lawsuits.
One of the few remaining options is the nuclear option: banning everything, in every public space.
…
This story begins with a mural alluding to LGBTQ themes.Local organizations, including a Pride group, used funds from a United Way diversity program to commission paintings for a brick wall outside a Chinese restaurant. The paintings, unveiled this summer, included a rainbow-hued colour wheel, trees and flowers, and they were given titles like, “We Belong.” An area newspaper ran a story about the new diversity mural.
“That’s when the uproar started,” says the volunteer organizer, Kerri Harrington.
The town’s three-member council leans conservative. And one member is especially upset by what she’s seeing.
Carrie Gendreau is a conservative Christian and Republican who also sits in the state legislature. She has said her policies are guided by biblical scripture, and recently told the Boston Globe: “Homosexuality is an abomination.”
At a town meeting in August, she complained about some of the art appearing in town. She urged residents to do their own research into these symbols, such as the rainbow outside the Chinese restaurant and, in another local work, the sun depicted as an eye.
Gendreau told the Boston Globe that she follows the work of Jonathan Cahn — a doomsday prophet who says Donald Trump is the fulfilment of biblical prophecy and sees rainbows and eyeballs as demonic symbols. Gendreau did not respond to multiple interview requests, but different people in Littleton told CBC News she has spoken to them enthusiastically about Cahn’s work.
Cahn’s writing argues, in summary: the Stonewall riots of 1969 which launched the modern gay-rights movement opened the floodgates to another realm, from which ancient pagan deities returned to Earth, including the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, who is resentful at being marginalized for thousands of years and hungry to return the favour against Christianity.
He pulls together odds and ends from ancient writings that refer to jewels and colours to conclude that the pride emblem, the rainbow, empowers Ishtar.
So much for “Live free or die”
Seems quite similar to Mike Pence, an over-50s white male without assets is mega sus.
The real news seems to be that there was still one Republican who was capable of feeling shame.
So, it’s a town that’s behaving like a super HMO, including a town council filled with pearl-clutching Karens worrying about the shade of paint on letterboxes and length of grass on lawns and anything else which shows any signs of individuality and independent thought?
… ah.
November!
There goes the town seal.
I’m so disappointed. We stopped by a coop art gallery in this town last February and the town seemed pretty interesting. Grrr.
I gotta hope at least some of the lawyers’ responses were along the lines of “What the hell? Even if that was legal why would you want to live in a world like that?”
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) environmental group is tracking what it calls the “hypocrisy” of the Republican members who have repeatedly sought to bask in the climate investment unleashed by the IRA despite having voted unanimously against it.
“We are clearly seeing this disconnect House Republicans are feeling between their voters and their fossil fuel donors,” said David Shadburn, senior government affairs advocate at LCV. “Voters want clean energy jobs but the donors in big oil and gas want the repeal of this stuff. These members are stuck between these two things.”
George Santos survived his expulsion vote just taken now.
So says my teevee.
The Republican Party is ethically bankrupt. That should have been a no-brainer. Santos is not only obviously guilty, but he’s making the GOP look bad. Well…he’s making them look worse. They already have such a razor thin margin in the House that they can’t do much, and losing one seat doesn’t change that in any significant way. They had nothing to lose by voting to expel him, and they could have gained a tiny amount of ethical high ground. It’s not like Trump is a big Santos supporter, so I don’t even think they would have had a problem there. And they still couldn’t do it.
“Who amongst us hasn’t used fake identities to steal money from disabled veterans? If we allow it to start with Santos, where will it end???!?”
that depends, does that mean all signs, billboards, and other advertisements must go as well? because i might just be okay with that. just maybe.
and if not, then they’re distinguishing between commercial and non commercial speech… in which case i guess all public art just has to pretend it’s an ad from now on?
All of that is true, but it’s maddening that they didn’t even get a majority of votes in favor of expulsion (they would have needed 2/3rds) because 31 Democrats voted against expulsion. WTF were those guys thinking?
Presumably no tattoos or printed t-shirts, either?
I don’t know how any Dem can justify not voting for expulsion.
Are they worried he might be replaced by an actual effective legislator?
